Finn's request
by Hcobb
Summary: Finn's request was so simple, so easy. It would only take a moment of Marceline's time.


[AdvTime] Finn's request, by Henry J. Cobb

[Adventure Time is the creation of Frederator Studios for Cartoon Network. This work is done without their knowledge or involvement. -HJC]

I lay there floating above my bed for a few minutes after sundown, half asleep. There was something strangely comforting about the situation. I felt a warm ease of a sort I hadn't known since I lost mother, all those centuries ago.

I turned over in midair and focused my senses. What was it, what was the difference this night?

Then I heard it, a heartbeat at my doorstep. It had a peculiar comforting feeling about it. Who could be so foolish? I shook my head. It was a question that answered itself.

I put on my boots and floated downstairs. As I approached my door I caught his scent and I felt an urgent hunger. I looked back towards my kitchen and considered breakfast, but then I turned again to my front door. I had unlived with this hunger for a millennium, what was a few minutes more? And it was best to deal with his foolishness, before it got out of hand again.

As I opened my door I saw him sitting on my doorstep, gazing out at the sky outside the cave in which my house stood. I turned towards where he was looking and saw only the first stars of the night appear through the dimming twilight.

He turned to look up at me. "Marceline?"

The look in his eyes reminded me of my hunger. I forced it down. I will not give in to the beast. I'm better than that. I'm not like my father. "Yes, this is my house after all. Why are you here, Finn?"

I felt his body warmth as he grabbed my hand, and the way he looked into my eyes almost made my heart beat. "Please, I need you to do something for me. I promise it won't take much time."

I yanked my hand back, before it could reach for his neck. I floated back a meter to get some distance then searched for the words to excuse my behavior. "Well, come in then. Is Jake with you?" My keen senses had already told me that Finn had come alone, but it helped to have something to say.

"No, he doesn't need this." Finn walked into my living room, then dropped down to his knees, took off his cap and tilted his head to the side. "Bite me."

It took all my strength to keep from diving for his neck at that moment. I focused my anger on my own weakness externally. I slapped him hard, but very carefully not hard enough to draw blood. I was too near my limit already. "What a rude thing to say!"

Finn bowed down before me, with his head pressed against the carpet. "I'm sorry, but please make me a vampire."

I grabbed him by the shoulders, carried him over and dropped him half a meter onto the rock-hard cushions of my sofa. Then I backed up two meters. "What's this now? Didn't I explain things the last time you wanted to be a vampire? What makes it so urgent now?"

He looked up again at me and the determination in his eyes frightened me. "There's this girl I like."

"I've told you already, Finn. I don't like you that way." I hoped I sounded convincing. I do have a thousand years practice in lying, after all. Even if most of that time I only had myself to lie to.

"No, she isn't a vampire." The sincerity in his eyes hit my heart like a stake.

I felt that rage again, then my endless sadness, and finally a calm resolve. This is what I had asked for, after all. I wanted Finn to have a happy life and he would have it. All I needed to do was talk him out of his current foolishness. "Finn, don't believe all those ancient stories about how vampires are all sexy and sparklingly. I was all of this before I got bit. I'm sure you'd be much better off winning her over as yourself."

"She already likes me, a lot."

"Then why do you need to be a vampire?"

"When you first came to the treehouse you said that you had played in the Fire Kingdom. I need to be fireproof like that."

"Why do you need to be fireproof?"

"The girl that I like is Sholeh, princess of the Fire Kingdom."

"So she glanced at you from her glass jar and you thought that was because she liked you? You silly boy. Don't you think she's just bored in there. So don't worry about it, because she's not coming out of there.

"She's already been released from her glass prison. She lives with us now."

"Finn, what have you done? Do you realize the danger?"

"Yes, she could blow another chunk off the Earth. Like the missing chunk I've seen from Mars. But if I was fireproof like a vampire then we could take things slowly. It'd be okay."

"Vampires are not fireproof."

"What? Then how did you play in the Fire Kingdom?"

"It's part of my being the heir to the Nightosphere, and I can't give that to you."

"Yes, that's it!" Finn beamed at me. "And Sholeh won't be a threat to Ooo anymore. Thank you, Marceline! Please look after Jake." He stood.

"Where are you going, Finn?"

"I'll take Sholeh to the Nightosphere. I promise I'll ask your dad first. I'll only take the amulet by force if he resists."

"No!" I flew over to block the door. "That's my amulet. You can't have it."

"I'm sorry, but I must."

"It'll take over you mind, Finn."

"Your dad seems to do okay. I'll find a way."

"Eventually, perhaps. But how about in the meantime? Who's to say it won't force you to hurt Sholeh over and over for centuries until you gain control?"

Finn's gaze dropped down to the carpet. "I've hurt her enough already."

"Look, Finn. We'll work this out. I'll teach you the Flame Shield spell and then you can take it easy with Sholeh. But first I need to fix some breakfast. You look like you could use something to eat yourself."

Finn nodded and returned to sit on the sofa.

As I started to work in the kitchen I considered how to get word to Bonnibel. She had been the one to devise the prison of glass and she needed to know it had failed.

-HJC


End file.
